KARACHI: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) president Maulana Fazlur Rehman claimed on Sunday that the alliance would produce on July 25 better electoral results than it did in the 2002 general elections.

“We have done it before and we are going to do it again with enormous support and love of the people of Karachi and elsewhere,” said Mr Rehman, who also heads his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, the largest component of the five-party conglomerate, while addressing a public meeting at Bagh-i-Jinnah in front of the Quaid’s mausoleum. He said the MMA would restore peace in Karachi.

Earlier, the MMA’s local leadership claimed their rally was “among the biggest public gatherings” in the history of the sprawling metropolis.

Mr Rehman said people of the city had a history of supporting religious parties and “this time round it is going to be our day. People are there to support us again and with more zeal”.

He said the MMA would end interest-based banking system and class discrimination. “We’ll be there to look after the country’s poor people, its workers and peasants,” said the MMA chief.

He said vote was the weapon of modern times, which decided who would rule a country. “Use it for those who will give you a real Islamic country,” he said.

MMA’s vice president and Jamaat-i-Islami’s chief Sirajul Haq said the MMA would bring about a true Islamic system if it was elected to rule the country.

He said Quaid-i-Azam had got Pakistan to make it an Islamic country, but the rulers who came later made mockery of the country’s geography and its original spirit and doctrine.

“We’ll make it a true Islamic country, a state that was dreamed and envisioned by the Quaid,” he said.

He said the PML-N and the PPP had failed to run the country in accordance with the vision of the Quaid. “Had they run the country to turn it an Islamic state we all would have supported them. But they have failed,” he said.

He said the MMA would not only support people of Pakistan, but would also help the poor across the world. He said since the MMA’s election symbol was ‘book’, education would certainly be among its top priorities.

Other speakers included Shah Awais Noorani, Maulana Ghafoor Hyderi, Rashid Mehmood Soomro, Ali Mohammad Abu Turab, Allama Arif Wahidi and Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2018